Youth Unemployment and Bank Bonuses

Claire Perry Excerpts

Monday 23rd January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I agree with my hon. Friend. We have to look only at the forecasts from, for example, the independent OBR, which says that unemployment will continue to rise this year, or at the OECD numbers, which say that unemployment will continue to rise into 2013. That is the reality.

I am sure we will hear the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and others defend the Government’s inaction and talk about their various half-baked and half-hearted solutions. We look forward to hearing a report on the progress of those initiatives, and in particular what difference the Government expect them to make to future unemployment. As I have said, the OBR has said that there is no reason for it to revise its unemployment projections as a result of the Government’s measures.

The Government’s response is inadequate for the scale of the challenge. When the Prime Minister was challenged last week on his performance on unemployment, all he could do was admit with regret that youth unemployment is a problem. However, the Opposition are asking the Government not simply to acknowledge they have a problem—we all know that—but to do something about it. The Prime Minister says he takes responsibility for everything that happens in our economy, but taking responsibility means taking action.

[Claire Perry (Devizes) (Con)]

Unemployment in my constituency is creeping upwards and long-term unemployment is coming down, but in both my constituency and the hon. Lady’s constituency apprenticeship starts are increasing at an incredibly rapid rate. Can she and I agree on one thing: that the best way to get young people into work is to get them such opportunities with the private sector, and relentlessly to support them, as this Government are doing?

[Rachel Reeves]

I expect the hon. Lady’s constituents, like mine, regret that the Government cancelled the future jobs fund, which was helping young people back into work. Since that cancellation, long-term youth unemployment in her constituency has gone up not just by a little bit, but by 36%. That is the reality that her constituents face day in, day out.

I hope we will not hear the usual hand-wringing—although I might have to give up that hope—or the usual shoulder-shrugging or blame-shifting. The jobs crisis is not a fact of life or a force of nature, and the Government cannot play the innocent bystander, as they have tried to do. The jobs crisis is a result of the choices they have made. They chose to cut too far and too fast; to abolish employment programmes that were working; and to destroy job opportunities in both public and private sectors.

--- Later in debate ---

[Danny Alexander]

I am going to make some progress, and I will give way again shortly.

Across the wider economy we are doing everything we can to foster renewed prosperity, create new jobs across the UK and return the country to sustainable growth. Whether we are talking about regulation, the planning system, reducing corporate taxation, our investment in infrastructure or the tax cuts that we are delivering for low-income workers, we are putting forward ambitious plans—plans that we need in these difficult times.

[Claire Perry]

rose—

[Danny Alexander]

I will give way in a moment.

We have plans that will help to foster a recovery led by our private sector, by entrepreneurs and by exporters, creating the kind of growth that the Opposition failed to deliver in over a decade in government. We face the monumental task of dealing with their legacy of unsustainable spending and debt-fuelled consumption, which left the coalition the task of dealing with the largest peacetime deficit on record.

--- Later in debate ---

[Danny Alexander]

I will give way in a moment.

The Opposition do not seem to realise that tackling that deficit is the vital precondition to sustainable growth. It is only by tackling the deficit that we can provide the certainty, stability and low interest rates that are critical to a recovery. The past 18 months have seen sovereign debt downgrades across the Europe, bail-outs of the weakest Eurozone economies, and countries racing to consolidate at the behest of the bond markets.

[Claire Perry]

I should like to bring a local business perspective to the debate. I had dinner last week with a group of people representing small businesses in the Wiltshire area, all of whom said that their businesses looked reasonable and they were thinking about hiring. Most importantly, they said that they had benefited enormously from the economic stability that the Government had created. Has my right hon. Friend heard anything from the Opposition that amounts to a coherent economic policy, or are they simply offering a wish list of chops and changes, and opposing for opposition’s sake?

[Danny Alexander]

I have heard nothing coherent from the Opposition, and I have heard nothing from the business community in this country but support for our policies to deal with the deficit and restore this country’s economic credibility. The coalition has never shirked its responsibility to take tough and sometimes unpopular decisions to tackle the deficit and pull the country out of the hole that the previous Government dug. Because we did not delay, and because we took action to get ahead of the curve, we can cut the deficit on our own terms and shelter the UK from the debt storm that has engulfed our nearest neighbours.